Certificate forgery: 18 FCTA staff in trouble Eighteen staff of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), are currently in trouble after reportedly being found culpable of age falsification and certificate forgery. They were allegedly exposed during the recent biometric exercise carried out by the administration on its staff. Interim report of the implementation committee on the recommendations submitted by the firm that handled the biometric exercise upheld that the 18 staff members engaged in age falsification and certificate forgery. Confirming the discovery of the scam to the Nigerian Tribune, on Sunday, Muhammad Hazat Sule, an Assistant Director at the FCTA and Chief Press Secretary to the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Mohammed disclosed that the minister had already approved the compulsory retirement of the affected staff. He disclosed that the minister also directed that further clarifications and assessments be carried out on 11 officers with pending remarks, as well as 59 officers who were yet to respond to the queries sent to them through their respective secretariats, departments and agencies. According to him, the minister further directed that the implementation committee carry out thorough certificate verification of all staff employed from 2006 to date, including all certificates acquired from 2006 till date by serving officers. He said Senator Mohammed instructed that the salaries of 156 officers that were verified and cleared be restored with effect from the date of stoppage of their salaries. Sule, however, did not state whether further actions would be taken against the affected staff. It will be recalled that when the administration commenced the biometric verification exercise, it distributed 27,000 enrolment forms to its staff. Out of the 27,000 enrolment forms distributed, only 25,246 officers participated in the exercise, forcing the minister to halt the salary of 3,296 officers with various observations with regards to their credentials, record of service and age discrepancies pending clarification on queries against them. He noted that the exercise was to ensure prudent and judicious utilisation of financial resources to enable the administration increase infrastructural development and sustain quality services to the residents of Abuja. The minister disclosed that the administration would carry out competency test of staff of education secretariat in order to weed out unqualified teachers in its payroll. Mohammed lamented that health and human services as well as education secretariats of the FCTA consume almost 65 per cent of the administration’s wage bill as a result of suspected ghost workers or other anomalies. However, workers at the FCTA staged a protest over the stoppage of their salaries and lack of promotion. The protesters, in their hundreds, barricaded the main gate and carried placards with various inscriptions which included, “Bala Must Go,” and “Pay Us Our Salaries.” Special Assistant to the Minister on Media, Nosike Ogbuenyi, later told journalists that the minister met with leaders of the workers’ association during which an agreement was reached on most areas of conflict, notably implementation of workers promotion, staff housing scheme, biometric screening, payment of hazard allowance, and provision of buses for staff transportation. He said the Minister assured the workers that their pending promotion has already been scheduled to be effected after the conclusion of the ongoing biometric screening to ascertain true workers. Nosike quoted the minister as having disclosed that the Administration has staff strength of over 28,000 personnel and pays about N3.6 billion monthly as staff wages and salaries. He argued that there is no way any reasonable Administration would embark on promotion exercise without first verifying the actual number of its workforce and ensuring that manpower budget, vacancies, establishment and budget are provided to cater for the additional costs envisaged. PRIME CHRONICLE
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 06:33:03 +0000
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